As usual time for an update on what’s been going on with Verdant Village. The answer to that question is a bit complicated. Sort of something between a lot and not a lot depending on what you interpret as progress.

Personally, I’m very happy with everything. I’m not much for extensive planning, but I’m forcing the matter in this case as I should have done from the start. Real quickly though, for those out of the loop, it should be said that per the last update the game is going on a sort of hiatus while I remake it in a new engine. As mentioned before, if you already own the game you can play it for now and eventually you’ll get the new version for free. There’s a variety of reasons for remaking it but if you want the details you can check the previous post.

So, this month has been a planning extravaganza. While the game isn’t changing in massive ways I basically had nothing that really resembled a design doc for Verdant Village. At the beginning I had a word doc that was several pages that basically said (very useful) things like “Alchemy will be a system that exists”, with little to no details describing the system. This left me to work out the details when I made the system which resulted in many an issue.

I now have not one, but several documents for the game. The main design doc is currently 46 pages long and I think its done, bar any minor changes to finalize things. Aside from this I have several other documents that are still works in progress detailing items, zones, secrets, rewards, quests, holidays, lore, events, etc.

The design document is the most important one however. It basically lays out every system in the game as well as more generalized notes to adhere to during design. There’s lots of little things like focusing on a more consistent UI, adding flare to various elements of the game to make it generally feel better, and various modifications to systems that will hopefully relieve pain points as there are several things that I think are rough for new players and even experienced ones.

Aside from that, like I said, every system is laid out in detail. Most things are remaining the same, however there are some changes that I’m considering. As this is all still in the design phase its subject to change, but I’d like to have it locked in by the time I begin coding in earnest. While I don’t want to spoil everything, I am curious for external opinions. I think I’m prone to complicating things in a game in the name of player progress, but I don’t want to go overboard. Below are a few things I wanted to mention and see if anyone had an opinion on. These aren’t all the changes but they are a few of the larger ones.

Decoration Buff (for lack of a better term): If anyone has played My Time In Portia I believe they have something similar. The idea being that by decorating your house and farm you get a buff. I haven’t determined what, but was considering something along the lines of additional stamina. Unlike Portia where certain objects give certain buffs this would be more of a score you get by adding objects in general so you can place what you want and still get the benefit.

Automation: While I won’t be specific on this, it’s a system I’ve had on my mind for a long time. In terms of theming this would keep to the games current theme, so you won’t be making industrial machinery. It would instead be something probably more based in magic. The idea would be to automate some, but not all, tasks. Things like auto gathering plants, automatically being given certain basic resources each day like stone, clay, or wood, and other such things. All of this would run on a power source that you would still have to supply so it isn’t completely free.

Hybrid Seeds: This is something fairly simple that I was considering. Looking at farming it sort of dead ends before it begins. There isn’t really anything different about it at the end from when you start. Generally, you just have more crops and they are probably watered automatically for you. This idea is meant to change that a bit. Basically, the general store will sell a smaller variety of seeds. The player can then build a small structure on their farm that allows you to cross breed seeds to get new crops. These cross breeds are remembered and there would be ways to obtain seeds you’ve made after you have made them once so you don’t need to cross breed them every time. In addition to this I wanted to add a few end game crops so you have something to strive for.

Grand Market: This one is sort of big. As the name implies, it’s a big market. The general idea being that this something of a task generator, a system for making money, and one of the end game challenges if you want it. The general premise would be that you would gain access to this market at some point in the game. Every couple of days or so the market generates requests. These requests can be for any item in the game and are randomized. As well as it being any item the requests are timed. So basically you can take on jobs to create specific items and you get more money for doing this task than you would be just selling the item at a store. Also requests would be themed so some might be all about alchemy objects while others are all livestock products. As far as end game goes I would like make a set of very difficult perhaps even a year long requests for players to complete.

That’s some of the new stuff that I wouldn’t mind getting an opinion on. There are a few other things as well, along with tons of changes as mentioned but I don’t think its stuff that needs to be brought up here. Another thing to mention is characters. I don’t know that this really matters because I don’t think there was a ton to go off of in the current game, but still I thought I should mention it. I’m currently creating a database on characters. No characters are being dropped but some are changing a bit. Appearances may be altered and backstories might change for them. Like I said I don’t think it really matters but I wanted to mention it as its currently what I’m working on. There wasn’t a ton to go on with the current iterations but I can say that the updated versions have many more details to work with which should result in more fleshed out personalities and stories.

This sort of thing ties into writing. While the current version of the game has a setting that is sometimes eluded to it is pretty scattered and not terribly well made. I went back and drew up a legit lore document for the game world that solidifies what was already there. It also has plenty of extraneous details. I somehow doubt this world’s creation myth is really going to come up much in a farming game, but it exists now and will probably be hidden away somewhere in the game.

All this is generally being done to hopefully enhance the world. The way I see it these are the types of games that players can spend tens if not hundreds of hours in. The world should be a character like anything else that brings you into the world. So while not all of it will be super relevant to your quaint little farming life it will hopefully serve to flesh out the world a bit.

Alright, I think that’s it. I apologize for the long post. It’s a lot easier to write a lot when you are just talking about stuff you are going to do and not what code you actually wrote in a month. As much as I’d like to have an ETA on the new version of the game I don’t have one. The only thing I can say is that Steam allows for beta branches. What I will probably do at some point is have an opt in beta so if you want to play the new version you can while retaining access to the old version.

Anyway, I’m off to write more characters. Thanks for your patience and support. With any luck actual coding will begin in April and I’ll have something of substance to report next month.